Apple iPad Pro 9.7-inch: Everything you need to know

If all the buzz around Monday's Apple event at the Town Hall in the Cupertino HQ of the haloed company was around the

If all the buzz around Monday's Apple event at the Town Hall in the Cupertino HQ of the haloed company was around the smaller iPhone SE, it is safe to say for Apple the 9.7-inch iPad Pro was the bigger announcement. Why? Well, simple. It was the last product that was announced and its unveil was presided upon by Phil Schiller who's their worldwide head of marketing and also the man who was trained to takeover key presentations from Steve Jobs. So, let's see what's all the hoopla behind the new iPad Pro. Is it just a smaller iPad Pro or there's more than what meets the eye?

Smaller yet sharper display

Apple has dropped the size of the iPad Pro to 9.7-inches which is the same as the iPad Air 2. Even the resolution is a more 'normal' 2048 X 1536 pixels, but Apple has made certain improvements over the 12.9-inch model. For instance, it touts a wider colour gamut and a new technology called TrueTone display which sounds similar to Xiaomi's Sunlight display tech which adjusts the colours and contrast of the panel in accordance with the ambient lighting. Regardless, expect the iPad Pro to have a gorgeous display.

Design

The iPad Pro 9.7-inch has a design which is largely similar to the 12.9-inch model. However, it is thinner than the 12.9-inch model at 6.1mm and lighter at 437 grams for the Wi-Fi model and 444 grams for the cellular model. It also is now available in the rose gold colour and as it has a different camera sensor on the back, it gets the unfortunate camera bump from the iPhone 6S along with a flash.

Performance

The A9X processor should ensure that the iPad Pro 9.7-inch model have scorching performance. It could be argued because the display is smaller and lower-resolution than the 12.9-inch model, the performance in gaming could be even better. Apple had added 4GB RAM in the iPad Pro 12.9-inch model, but as of now it is not known how much RAM the new 9.7-inch model has.

With the new iPad Pro, Apple has for the first time added 256GB memory SKU for an iOS device. If you thought the iPad didn't have enough memory, Apple is quickly eliminating excuses for using it like a proper PC. Memory options start at 32GB for the Wi-Fi models and go all the way up to 256GB. Even the larger 12.9-inch iPad Pro gets the 256GB model.

Camera

The cameras on the new iPad Pro will make even the users of the 12.9-inch model feel archaic. Why? Apple has added the same 12-megapixel camera from the iPhone 6S on the iPad Pro 9.7-inch. It gets tech like focus pixels, deep trench isolation, a f/2.2 aperture, support for live photos and 4K video recording. It will likely be the best camera ever installed on a tablet. Even the front camera gets a massive upgrade. It gets a 5-megapixel sensor and the screen can double as the retina flash.

Other stuff

There's more. Despite the smaller size of the tablet, Apple had retained the 4-speaker system which we found on the 12.9-inch model. Apple still claims up to 10 hours of battery life, which pretty much is class leading and the device supports the Apple Pencil and there's also a new smaller smart keyboard accessory for people who want to get work done. One minor change from the 12.9-inch model to the 9.7-inch model is that its lightning port can only handle USB 2.0 transfer speeds while the older model can support faster USB 3.0 speeds. Apple has also launch a bunch of new accessories like a SD Card Camera Reader and Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter.

Pricing

The 9.7-inch model for obvious reasons is cheaper than the 12.9-inch model. It starts at Rs 49,900 for the 32GB Wi-Fi only model and Rs 61,900 for the 32GB cellular model.